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Snotnose writes:

Your super secret airplane just crashed and everyone knows where. Now what?

'At the crash site investigators collected evidence and evaluated the remains of the aircraft for clues to the cause of the tragedy. Then came the task of cleaning the site and leaving no pieces of the highly classified aircraft for scavengers, the media, or others to find. A clean-up team moved out a thousand feet from the last of the recognizable debris and then dug and sifted all the dirt in the area.

'On Jul. 23, controlled explosive charges were detonated on the hillside to free pieces of the aircraft buried as the result of the crash.'

Then, according to Knowledge Stew, the Air Force brought in a crashed F-101A Voodoo, an aircraft that had been out of service with the Air Force since 1972 and with the Air National Guard since 1982. The crashed Voodoo had been in storage at the secretive Area 51 in Nevada for more than 20 years, and it was broken up and put in place of the F-117 debris. Almost a month later, the Air Force said the area was no longer restricted.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Networking giant Cisco is getting out of the LoRaWAN market for IoT device connectivity, announcing end-of-availability and end-of-life dates for its gateways and associated products, with no planned migration pathway for customers.

Switchzilla made this information public in a notice on its website announcing the end-of-sale and end-of-life dates for Cisco LoRaWAN. The last day customers will be able to order any affected products will be January 1, 2025, with all support ceasing by the end of the decade.

The list includes Cisco's 800 MHz and 900 MHz LoRaWAN Gateways, plus associated products such as omni-directional antennas and software for the Gateways and Interface Modules.

If anyone was in any doubt, the notification spells it out: "Cisco will be exiting the LoRaWAN space. There is no planned migration for Cisco LoRaWAN gateways."

The move will come as a blow for any organizations that have built IoT deployments using LoRaWAN that may have considered Cisco to be a safe and dependable supplier. The networking colossus was pushing new products as recently as last year, when it announced a pluggable interface module (PIM) for the Cisco Catalyst IR1100 Rugged Series Routers with LoRaWAN connectivity.

LoRaWAN is a low power, wide area network specification, specifically designed to connect devices such as sensors over relatively long distances. It is built on LoRa, a form of wireless communication that uses spread spectrum modulation, and makes use of license-free sub-gigahertz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio bands. The tech is overseen by the LoRa Alliance.

[...] One analyst we spoke to who covers the IoT space said this likely isn't a profitable part of the business as far as Cisco is concerned. Since LoRa has a long range, fewer gateways are required than in Wi-Fi deployments, for example, and there are many vendors making LoRa sensors and hardware, resulting in a competitive market.

[...] "Exiting the LoRaWAN market is probably part of a more focused look at networking, paring away areas where they either weren't dominant, they don't see growth potential or that isn't in line with their overall networking roadmap."

Any Cisco LoRaWAN customers can perhaps take comfort from the fact that the final date to receive applicable service and support as stipulated in active service contracts is December 31, 2029. However, the last date that Cisco Engineering may release a planned maintenance release or software patch is much nearer – December 31, 2026.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas, but as datacenter footprints explode amid the AI boom, regulators fear even the Lone Star state's utilities won't be able to keep up for much longer.

The Texas' Public Utility Commission is now warning datacenter operators looking to set up shop in the US state within the next 12 to 15 months that they won't be able to rely entirely on the local grid and will have to supply at least some of their own power. As some of you will know, Texas has at times suffered blackouts from demand overload, and outages sparked by storms damaging infrastructure.

"We can't afford to lose any of our resources off the system at this point, especially given those load-growth projections," Thomas Gleeson, who chairs the commission, told Blomberg during the Gulf Coast Power Association conference in Austin this week.

Chief among Gleeson's concerns is datacenters setting up shop near existing power plants and buying up the supply of electricity, making it harder for the grid to keep the lights on for everyone else. Instead, Gleeson wants to see datacenter operators arranging and supporting their own generation facilities before putting strain on existing infrastructure.

[...] To ensure their bit-barn projects don't run out of juice, some operators are cozying up to operating and even defunct nuclear power plants. This northern spring, Amazon paid $650 million for Talen Energy's Cumulus datacenter located directly adjacent to the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Under the deal, Amazon will have access to up to 960 megawatts of power.

[...] However, bringing retired nuclear plants back online isn't always as easy as it sounds. As The Register recently reported, many older facilities will require extensive repairs and modernization before they're ready to start turning steam into electricity again.

day of the dalek writes:

NOAA has issued a rare G4 watch for a severe geomagnetic storm that is expected on October 10 and 11. G4 refers to NOAA's scale for the intensity of geomagnetic storms, which ranges from G1 to G5. Prior to the geomagnetic storm in May of this year that reached G5 intensity, the last G4 watch was issued in January of 2005.

This watch was issued for a coronal mass ejection (CME) that occurred around 03 UTC on October 9 and is expected to reach Earth around 12-15 UTC on October 10. An article from the Washington Post states that the speed of the CME, around 2.5 million miles per hour, is the fastest that a CME has been ejected toward Earth during the current solar cycle. From my very limited understanding of space weather, it seems that faster CMEs generate higher ram pressures against Earth's magnetosphere and can result in more severe geomagnetic storms. The x-ray brightness of solar flares gets a lot of attention, and this was an X-class flare (the highest level on the classification scale), this was an X1.8 flare whereas flares have been observed at least up to X28. The high speed of the CME, however, seems to be a factor in the potential for a severe geomagnetic storm.

One of the main questions that we can't answer until the CME gets to within about a million miles of Earth is the orientation of its magnetic field. If the CME's magnetic field is aligned in the same direction as Earth's, it will produce a less severe geomagnetic storm than if it's aligned in the opposite direction. An excellent resource for data about space weather and this CME is NOAA's space weather enthusiasts dashboard. There's a lot of data on that page that is useful if you're concerned about the possibility of viewing auroras or potential disruptions to the power grid, so hopefully some of the comments can explain a bit more about what it means. I don't know a whole lot about space weather, but I'll try to offer a cursory explanation of what I believe some of it means.

The solar visible light shows where sunspots are currently observed, whereas the LASCO C3 images are observed from satellites can be used to see CMEs when they occur. A CME will appear like an explosion outward from the sun's corona. The data is input into a model called WSA-ENLIL, which predicts the density and radial velocity (outward from the sun) of solar wind plasma. A higher plasma density or a faster radial velocity should result in a stronger geomagnetic storm. This is also useful for estimating when a CME will reach Earth. I believe the GOES magnetometer data is used to measure how much the Earth's magnetic field is compressed or stretched and can identify the onset of geomagnetic storms. The ACE MAG and SWEPAM data are satellite-derived measurements of the solar wind. In addition to showing the plasma speed, temperature, and density, the Bz and Phi variables show the orientation of the magnetic field in the solar wind. If Bz is positive, it's a northward-oriented magnetic field. However, a negative Bz indicates a southward-oriented magnetic field, the opposite direction of Earth's magnetic field, and this can result in more severe geomagnetic storms. Basically, a strongly negative Bz around -10 or even -20 would be more favorable for a strong geomagnetic storm. The aurora forecast is a short-term forecast (~30 minutes to an hour) of the probability of auroral activity over a location, though auroras may be visible near the horizon in areas equatorward of what the forecast shows.

There's a lot of data on NOAA's space weather dashboard that can be useful for anyone hoping to see the auroras. My understanding of space weather is very limited, so if anyone else has a better understanding of what the data means, please share the information in the comments. Although a G4 or even a G5 geomagnetic storm is possible, but there's still a lot of uncertainty until the CME gets very close to Earth.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Scientists simulated a nuclear explosion using x-ray pulses to push an asteroid-like rock away in space-like conditions:

It's been almost 25 years since Bruce Willis, playing the fictional character Harry Stamper in the blockbuster movie, Armageddon, saved Earth from an asteroid careering towards the planet. In true Hollywood fashion, he did this by detonating a nuclear bomb implanted in the asteroid, preventing what scientists call a "mass extinction event". The whole world cheered (at least in the movie).

The world might be able to cheer for real now. In a study published in Nature Physics, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, US, say they have simulated a nuclear X-ray pulse directed onto the side of an asteroid to change the trajectory of the asteroid and avoid a collision with the Earth.

[...] Scientists used an X-ray pulse inside a vacuum to simulate a nuclear explosion on the surface of an asteroid-like rock in space-like conditions. The pulse created a vapour plume which pushed the rock away.

"The vaporised material shoots off one side, pushing the asteroid in the opposite direction," Dr Nathan Moore, the lead author of the new study, said in a press statement.

In an interview with Space.com, an online publication focused on space exploration and astronomy, Moore said: "You have to concentrate a lot of power, about 80 trillion watts, into a very small space, the size of a pencil lead, and very quickly, about 100 billionths of second, to generate a hot enough argon plasma, several millions of degrees, to make a powerful enough X-ray burst to heat the asteroid material surface to tens of thousands of degrees to give it enough push."

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/scotus-denial-ends-saga-of-shkrelis-infamous-5000-drug-price-scheme/

The legal saga over Martin Shkreli's infamous 5,000 percent price hike of a life-saving anti-parasitic drug has ended with a flat denial from the highest court in the land.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected Shkreli's petition to appeal an order to return $64.6 million in profits from the pricing scheme of Daraprim, a decades-old drug used to treat toxoplasmosis. The condition is caused by a single-celled parasite that can be deadly for newborns and people with compromised immune systems, such as people who have HIV, cancer, or an organ transplant.
[...]
In a lawsuit filed in 2021, the Federal Trade Commission and seven state attorneys general accused Shkreli of building a "web of anticompetitive restrictions to box out the competition." In January of 2022, US District Court Judge Denise Cote agreed, finding that Shkreli's conduct was "egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running, and ultimately dangerous."

Cotes banned Shkreli from the pharmaceutical industry for life and found him liable for $64.6 million in disgorgement. In January 2024, an appeals court upheld Cote's ruling.
[...]
Shkreli's lawyer filed a petition with the Supreme Court arguing that the ill-gotten profits from Daraprim's price hike went to corporate entities, not Shkreli personally, and that federal courts had issued conflicting rulings on disgorgement liabilities.

In a list of orders today, the Supreme Court announced it denied Shkreli's petition to hear his appeal. The justices offered no explanation and no dissents were noted.

The denial is Shkreli's second rejection from the Supreme Court.

Previously on SoylentNews: SoylentNews Stories on Shkreli (Search Link)
Infamous Pharma Company Founded by Shkreli Files for Bankruptcy, Blames Shkreli - 20230514
Shkreli Released From Prison to Halfway House After Serving - 20220522
Judge Denies Shkreli's "Delusional Self-Aggrandizing" Plea to Get Out of Jail - 20200519
Sobbing Martin Shkreli Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Defrauding Investors - 20180310
FBI Arrests Shkreli of the Drug Price Hike Fame - 20151217 (That didn't take him long.)
Cost of Daraprim Medication Raised by Over 50 Times - 20150922

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The data compiled by Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reveals a significant surge in global AIB [add-in board] volumes, up 47.9 percent year-on-year to 9.5 million units and up 9.4 percent quarter-over-quarter from 8.7 million.

Yet since Intel introduced its first dedicated AIB – or graphics card – via the Arc Alchemist microarchitecture in March 2022, the company has seemingly failed to capture meaningful market share from either Nvidia or AMD, at least according to JPR.

[...] When Intel first teased its Arc GPUs, there was a lot of buzz. Could Chipzilla translate its experience in processors to AIBs and perform as well in the dedicated graphics market as it has elsewhere?

On launch, the company talked a big game about disrupting the duopoly of Nvidia and AMD. Intel promised its products would be affordable and competitive, with options for gamers, creators, and enterprise users. Just over two years in, the reality hasn't lived up to the hype. Intel has suffered some technical setbacks, including driver instability and immaturity, which is a given for a new player in the market. The other stumbling block is performance related, although Intel has consistently released new driver updates looking to address this.

From here, Intel's movement into the AIB market seems to have been a dud, particularly considering the company's poor financial position and rivals expressing interest in acquiring assets. If Intel can't even dent a full percentile of AMD's market share, it seemingly doesn't stand a chance.

Unless Intel can recapture some of that earlier buzz with the upcoming Battlemage AIBs between now and the end of 2025, its goal of being a major player in dedicated graphics appears more likely to be a pipe dream.

Intel needs to focus on its pedigree in microprocessors rather than trying to enter a market locked down by Nvidia because the issues around its 14th and 13th gen Core series families haven't done its reputation any favors. Nvidia's dominance in the broader graphics market looks unlikely to change as we enter the age of AI, nor will its chokehold on the AIB industry, at least not any time soon.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

In a surprising announcement, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the web, and Rosemary Leith, co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, revealed that the organization is ceasing operations. The decision comes after 16 years of advocating for a safe, trusted, open web.

However, Berners-Lee is not giving up on the Foundation's goals; instead, he's just redirected his efforts to the Solid Protocol. That said, some of the Foundation's original objectives have been achieved. These include:

• Expanding internet access: When the Foundation started in 2009, only 20% of the world had internet access. Now, nearly 70% of the global population is online.
• Advocating for affordable internet: The foundation set a benchmark called "1 for 2", which stated that 1GB of mobile data shouldn't cost over 2% of a person's average monthly income. Not only was this successful, but now the Alliance for Affordable Internet is advocating for "1 for 5", where the goal is for the cost of 5GB of broadband, both mobile and fixed, to be no more than 2% of someone's average monthly income by 2026.
• Promoting net neutrality: The foundation helped win victories for net neutrality in the EU, India, and the US.

• Berners-Lee and Leith cited the dramatically changed landscape of internet access as a key factor in their decision. The Foundation's original mission has evolved with most of the world now online, at affordable prices, and numerous organizations now defending web users' rights.

From where they sit, the top threat to users' rights is dominant, centralized social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, and Reddit. This dominance has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that's contrary to Berners-Lee's original vision of the web.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A view from a retrofitted spy plane soaring at 20 kilometers up revealed storms glowing and flickering in gamma rays, high-energy light invisible to the eye. Ten flights with the plane, NASA’s ER-2 aircraft, captured the shimmer of gamma-ray outbursts over a variety of timescales and intensities, suggesting that the emissions are more complex and more common than previously thought. And the study unveiled a brand-new type of gamma-ray blast the researchers named a flickering gamma-ray flash. 

“I’m absolutely awestruck,” says physicist David Smith, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved with the research. It’s most important new data in this field for over a decade, he says.

Scientists knew of two main types of thunderstorm gamma-ray emissions. Short, intense blasts called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes are so luminous they can be seen from space, and last for mere fractions of a millisecond (SN: 1/10/23). Then there are longer, dimmer emissions called gamma-ray glows. Scientists spotted both on the flights. 

Glows, the scientists found, were unexpectedly persistent and prevalent. They continued for hours, covered thousands of square kilometers, and were seen in nine of the plane’s 10 flights, physicist Nikolai Østgaard and colleagues report in the Oct. 3 Nature. 

“It’s astonishing,” says physicist Ningyu Liu of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who was not involved with the work. 

What’s more, the gamma-ray glows weren’t static, as previously thought, but constantly simmered, brightening and dimming repeatedly on timescales of seconds. “Large storms are bubbling. It’s like a boiling pot,” says Østgaard, of the University of Bergen in Norway.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/10/jail-time-for-montana-man-who-smuggled-and-cloned-an-endangered-300-pound-sheep/

Readers of a certain age might remember Dolly, a Finn-Dorset sheep born in 1996 to three mothers and some proud Scottish scientists. Dolly generated global headlines just by being alive, as she was the first mammal to be cloned using DNA taken from body (somatic) cells.
[...]
Dolly was more than a science experiment, though; she helped kickstart an entire commercial industry in animal cloning. Once the technology made it possible, what would people want to clone? Their pets, for one, but also high-value animals—especially those creatures that were both rare and illegal to possess.

All of that explains how an octogenarian rancher named Arthur Schubarth yesterday found himself sentenced to six months in federal prison for cloning a sheep.
[...]
Arthur Schubarth ran a 215-acre Montana game farm called Sun River Enterprises that specialized in raising mountain sheep and goats. The animals were often sold to game ranches where hunters would track and kill them for sport.

Buyers wanted "trophy" animals, and in the world of big-game sheep hunting
[...]
the Mountain Polo argali (ovis ammon polii) is the biggest and gamiest. Argali sheep can grow to 300 pounds, making them the largest sheep in the world, and they have the largest horns of any wild sheep.
[...]
Schubarth saw a financial opportunity if he could bring argali sheep to the US to produce larger animals for domestic hunters, but the sheep are listed in the US Endangered Species Act and the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Importing an argali would require CITES paperwork from the host country and Fish and Wildlife permission from the US government.

Schubarth ignored these rules and instead sent his son to Kyrgyzstan on a hunting trip in 2012. The son killed an argali and brought parts of it back in his luggage without declaring them, but they were unsuitable for cloning. So it was back to Kyrgyzstan in 2013, where the son killed another argali and again brought its body parts home without alerting US or Montana authorities.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

During a recent internal meeting, Microsoft Executive Vice President of Cloud and AI Group Scott Guthrie promised that the company does not plan to follow Amazon's lead in mandating workers back to the office five days per week. However, two vetted Microsoft employees who attended the meeting told Business Insider under conditions of anonymity that the vow comes with the condition that productivity doesn't decline.

It would seem a bit hypocritical if the Redmond giant eliminated remote work, considering it literally makes Teams – a software suite that enables and encourages companies to allow employees to work from home. However, the question of productivity is a big one that no one has answered satisfactorily.

On the one hand, companies generally don't make wide-sweeping changes unless the government mandates it (lockdowns) or the beancounters find the changes save or make the firm more money (productivity). On the other hand, you have employees saying they "feel" more productive at home, which seems weak as an argument but is one that resistant work-from-homes cite time after time.

Microsoft's senior director of IT, Keith Boyd, says remote work can be sustainable as long as it's done right.

"If you make the time to do it right, your employees will be more engaged, more productive, and more connected, even when they're miles away," Boyd wrote in an August blog post. "And they'll be far less likely to leave for a competitor who has a more sophisticated and flexible model than you do."

The remote model has advantages from both the employee's and employer's perspectives. For example, a company that covers daycare costs can save money with a remote work program, while the employee can reap the benefits of not having to commute daily.

Unfortunately, the risks and disadvantages of remote employees primarily lie on the company's shoulders. Loss of productivity due to workers taking care of personal business or even napping is a genuine concern. It's not surprising to learn that there are actual products that circumvent monitoring measures employers frequently use to be sure their employees are working while on the clock.

Meanwhile, there are not many disadvantages for the remote employee, which is probably the most contributing factor to workers fighting tooth and nail to stay out of the office. Protests and unionizing efforts are more prevalent post-pandemic, and much of the bellyaching relates to employers reversing stay-at-home mandates.

That said, Microsoft thinks it has the remote work dynamic figured out. We'll have to see if its reassurances about continuing with the model help keep its workers in line without direct supervision.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, writes that it supported a new series of actions against LockBit members, leading to the four arrests and seizures of servers critical for the group's infrastructure.

Ransomware criminals in Russia are often safe from arrest as the local authorities tend to ignore their actions as long as they don't attack organizations within the country. But one of those arrested, a LockBit developer, had gone on vacation in August to a territory that has an extradition agreement with France. The French Gendarmerie were alerted, leading to his arrest. The individual and the country where he was apprehended have not been revealed.

August also saw two more people arrested in connection to the operation, both in the UK. One is reported to be associated with a LockBit affiliate, and the other is suspected of money laundering. Britain's National Crime Agency identified them using data seized during the massive takedown of LockBit operations in February.

The final arrest was made at Madrid airport, where Spain's Guardia Civil arrested an administrator of a Bulletproof hosting service used by the ransomware group. Bulletproof hosting companies provide hosting services that are deliberately designed to be resistant or immune to takedown requests, law enforcement, or other forms of interference. They are often linked to criminal activities because they allow or tolerate hosting illegal content.

Spanish officers also seized nine servers, part of the ransomware's infrastructure.

In addition, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States implemented sanctions against an actor identified as a prolific affiliate of LockBit and strongly linked to ransomware group Evil Corp.

16 members of Evil Corp, once believed to be the most significant cybercrime threat in the world have been sanctioned in the UK with their links to the Russian state and other ransomware groups, including LockBit, exposed. Sanctions have also been imposed by Australia and the US

The LockBit ransomware-as-a-service has been behind over 1,700 attacks on organizations in the United States from virtually every sector, from government and financial to transport, healthcare, and education.

This year's multinational Operation Cronos saw LockBit's website seized and operations disrupted. Investigators also seized 34 servers containing over 2,500 decryption keys and used the data gathered from those servers to develop a free file decryption tool for the LockBit 3.0 Black Ransomware.

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-radio-invented

Imagine if your boss called a meeting in May to announce that he's committing 10 percent of the company's revenue to the development of a brand-new mass-market consumer product, made with a not-yet-ready-for-mass-production component. Oh, and he wants it on store shelves in less than six months, in time for the holiday shopping season. Ambitious, yes. Kind of nuts, also yes.

But that's pretty much what Pat Haggerty, vice president of Texas Instruments, did in 1954. The result was the Regency TR-1, the world's first commercial transistor radio, which debuted 70 years ago this month. The engineers delivered on Haggerty's audacious goal, and I certainly hope they received a substantial year-end bonus.

[...] TI was still a small company, with not much in the way of R&D capacity. But Haggerty and the other founders wanted it to become a big and profitable company. And so they established research labs to focus on semiconductor materials and a project-engineering group to develop marketable products.

Haggerty made a good investment when he hired Gordon Teal, a 22-year veteran of Bell Labs. Although Teal wasn't part of the team that invented the germanium transistor, he recognized that it could be improved by using a single grown crystal, such as silicon. Haggerty was familiar with Teal's work from a 1951 Bell Labs symposium on transistor technology. Teal happened to be homesick for his native Texas, so when TI advertised for a research director in the New York Times, he applied, and Haggerty offered him the job of assistant vice president instead. Teal started at TI on 1 January 1953.

Original Submission

Anonyspouse writes:

Comcast confirms 237K affected in feisty breach notification: https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/comcast_fcbs_ransomware_theft/

Between February 14 and February 26, 2024, FBCS [Financial Business and Consumer Solutions] experienced a cyberattack where someone unauthorized got into their computer network and took some data. Comcast told customers about this in a letter, saying that customer information might have been taken during this time. Another company, CF Medical, also had a similar situation where customer data was accessed by a cybercriminal in July and they notified their customers too.

However, that changed in July, when the collections outfit got in touch again to say that, actually, the Comcast subscriber data it held had been pilfered.

Among the data types stolen were names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and the Comcast account numbers and ID numbers used internally at FBCS. The data pertains to those registered as customers at "around 2021." Comcast stopped using FBCS for debt collection services in 2020.

Original Submission

Submitted by an Anonymous Coward:

https://www.wired.com/story/license-plate-readers-political-signs-bumper-stickers/

AI-powered cameras on cars and trucks have been used to capture images of political signs, individuals wearing T-shirts with text, and vehicles displaying pro-abortion bumper stickers. The data, reviewed by WIRED, shows how a tool originally designed for traffic enforcement has evolved into a system capable of monitoring 'speech' protected by the US Constitution.

[...] Another image taken on a different day by a different vehicle shows a "Steelworkers for Harris-Walz" sign stuck in the lawn in front of someone's home. A construction worker, with his face unblurred, is pictured near another Harris sign. Other photos show Trump and Biden (including "Fuck Biden") bumper stickers on the back of trucks and cars across America. One photo, taken in November 2023, shows a partially torn bumper sticker supporting the Obama-Biden lineup.

These images were generated by AI-powered cameras mounted on cars and trucks, initially designed to capture license plates, but which are now photographing political lawn signs outside private homes, individuals wearing T-shirts with text, and vehicles displaying pro-abortion bumper stickers—all while recording the precise locations of these observations.

The detailed photographs all surfaced in search results produced by DRN Data, a license-plate-recognition (LPR) company owned by Motorola Solutions. The LPR system can be used by private investigators, repossession agents, and insurance companies. However, files shared with WIRED by artist Julia Weist show that those with access to the LPR system can search for common phrases or names, such as those of politicians, and be served with photographs where the search term is present, even if it is not displayed on license plates. The research also reveals the extent to which surveillance is happening on a mass scale in the quiet streets of America, and how people's personal political views and homes can be recorded into vast databases that can be queried.

Original Submission